http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=24533
Summary: USB Floppy Drives cannot be assigned Drive A: or B:. Product: Wine Version: 1.3.3 Platform: x86 OS/Version: Mac OS X 10.6 Status: UNCONFIRMED Severity: normal Priority: P2 Component: mountmgr.sys AssignedTo: wine-bugs@winehq.org ReportedBy: cparke@parkerfamily.name
Apparently, add_drive() in device.c recognizes them as RAM disks (as Mac OS mounts the drive like a hard drive/USB flash with no partition table), not a floppy drive, and I am restricted to drive letters D-Z in Wine. Creating the registry entry for the device at drive A: or B: is ignored, when the diskette is inserted the drive just gets mounted as E: or so forth. Even if I manually create the A: drive link in the /DosDevices directory, when I insert the diskette it gets a new letter and mounts under both. If C-Z are all used, the drive does not mount at all.
There is no reason why a USB flash device or USB floppy cannot be assigned to drive letter A: or B:. Windows most certainly allows it! (even network drive shares are allowed in the A:/B: slot) In fact, if I muck with the registry in Windows (since the UI doesn't allow it), Windows will allow a hard drive to occupy the A: or B: slot.
At a minimum, the restrictions in WINE preventing USB Floppies from being assigned to A:/B: needs to be removed. I need the drive A: because I'm using the USB floppy for a copy-protection scheme which uses a floppy diskette key to validate the serial number before allowing an install (the routine also has logic to block virtual drives and network shares from being used, which is why a manually created A:/B: will not do).